Rank the Bill of Rights in order of importance (easy version)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Because I made the poll in a confusing order in the last one…

Reading about the formation of the Bill of Rights and James Madison’s original intentions, interestingly it seems the Big M didn’t want them to be added on as Amendments but incorporated into the Articles, consequently the order we get them in today simply reflects the order of the sections they would’ve gone, and not as some people assume, the order of relative importance.

But what if they were in order of importance - how would you rearrange them?

Poll incoming but you’ll have to be patient…again. The Amendments are referred to in word form, i.e. “First” for the First Amendment, where you think they should be in order of importance is in number, i.e. “1st” for the most important and so on.

If you need a refresher;
*First;
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Second;
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Third;
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Fourth;
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Fifth;
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Sixth;
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Seventh;
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law

Eighth;
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Ninth;
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Tenth;
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.*

2

Hmmm…

Until there’s a poll:

I’d make a special annotation for the Ninth and Tenth Articles of Amendment vis a vis a “bill of rights”. ISTM the Ninth is more a rule about interpretation and the Tenth is actually an annex to the original Constitution’s parts dealing with the powers and faculties of the branches of government.

So as per Madison’s apparent intent I *would *have the Tenth (essentially, unless from the Constitution itself it follows that something’s a Federal matter, it’s a state matter or the people’s matter) as not a part of the “Bill of Rights” itself but as a General Provision to the whole of the Constitution. Important politically with regards to the federal nature of the government itself.

Then we have the Ninth (There are/may be other rights of the people that we are not mentioning in the list: that they don’t appear here in as many words does not mean they don’t exist) a preamble or coda to the rest of them just so as to make that perfectly clear.

As to the ones that mention specific rights, I’d rewrite in order:

1 - First - freedom of speech, conscience, press, assembly

2 - Fourth - freedom from unwarranted surveillance and harassment

3 - (combination) Fifth (criminal provisions)+ Sixth - protection of the rights of the accused or would-be accused in criminal cases

4 - Eighth - proportionality of bonds and punishments for the accused and convicted. Could be appended to the above, even.

5 - (combination) Fifth (takings provisions), + Third if we want to keep it around - protection of private property owners’ rights. (IMO quartering troops is a “taking” of use of the property, anyway)

I could take flipping the above two blocks of my version.

6th - Second - Right for the populace to be armed.

7th - Seventh - Procedural aspects for Federal civil cases (oy, this one needs an inflation-adjustment re-amendment, ya think?).
This is limiting myself of course only to the parts of the actual original BOR

3

Should be a poll already up? Unless the hamster start straining when there’s 101 options.

4

The First is first, the Second is last. Everything else is arguable.

5

It showed up while editing, figured I’d finish.

6

I ranked them all as first, just cause i could…you may now grind up my organs into a patty

7

Speaking of Which…

What if I go outside the poll parameters and some other Amendments that have to do with the people’s Rights and insert them in…

8

By all means, feel free. I’ll be royally buggered if I remake a poll with 729 options to cover the ranking of all the Amendments, though.

How come the poor Third is getting no love? What’re you gonna do next time Billy Yank wants hang his breeches in your pantry? Come crawling back I’d wager!

9

:smiley:

Naah, the ones I added in my last post are about the only that rank way up there. Most of the others are dull procedural mechanics provisions including multiple go-arounds at deciding how and when the heck do you sit a president and/or a veep. It took them 200 years to even pass that Congress could only raise their own pay prospectively.

BTW was anyone suing anybody for $25.01 even in 1791??

As for the Third, like I mentioned in my original re-listing, when I look at it ISTM it is really a special case of the takings clause of the Fifth. I suppose it got special attention and it own standing because of the then-fresh memory of the various grievances and pretexts for the Revolution and the fears and concerns of the opponents of Federation. Probably also why in the First Amendment they put religion first in the list of forms of expression the Congress was to avoid futzing with, and why they prominently put language as to enabling the existence a People’s Militia up front in the second.

Besides these days you’d get all sorts of heat for not Supporting The Troops if you’d rather not let them track mud all over your den or leave empty MRE wrappers behind the couch cushions.

10

The Ninth Amendment is the top, because it effects interpretation all of the others. The principle of ‘your right to swing your fist ends at my nose’ is an oft forgotten concept.

The Second is tenth, because it doesn’t even belong on the list.

The Fourth and First are second and third, because they’re the most important actual rights.

The rest all come in the nebulous middle and my ranking of them is more or less arbitrary.

11

is this yet another thread where we’re supposed to confidently state that what we believe is the truth and anyone who disagrees is an idiot/evil?

12

Even as a kid, I didn’t get the Third Amendment. I mean, the First Amendment protects various rights with “Congress shall make no law” language, because that’s, like, the whole point, isn’t it? You want to say something about my right to a jury trial, or against self-incrimination, you end that sentence with a period.

You want to pass a law changing that? Sod off, you don’t get to do that.

Third Amendment: Soldiers Can’t Stay Here Unless Congress Says So.

Yeah, that’s – not actually a thing, is it?

13

It’s not that it’s not a thing, it’s just that it seems completely useless. The Intolerable act of quartering was a law. It could still pass completely under the U.S. Constitution.

All I can figure it that it puts the power directly under the legislature, rather than the executive. But that seems inherent from reading both Article Two and the Ninth and Tenth Amendments (which are really just two halves of the same coin.)

14

Yup.

1,8,6,5,4,7,9,3,2,10

I have spoken.

FWIW, I can only recite the meaning of half the bill of rights by memory, and several of them seem too similar for me to know the difference (4-8 all seem very similar).

15

I flipped the Ninth and Tenth, under the thinking that the 10th Amendment seems to be the most defining one in terms of how the system works- it’s not a law or prohibition on the government, but more of a clearer definition of exactly what the role of the Federal government vis-a-vis the States is. The Ninth is similar, except on an individual rights level.

After that, I said the Sixth, Fifth and Fourth in that order, followed by the First, Second, Seventh, Eighth and Third.

16

1st
9th
5th
4th
6th
7th
8th
3rd
10th
2nd
My list starts with the First Amendment, the one that gives us the means to defend all the others. Only slightly behind it is the Ninth, for all the other rights it recognizes. It ends with the Second, as the only one that’s actually harmful, then the Tenth, because the Feds shouldn’t need to jump through so many hoops to be a functional government (and they jump through those hoops anyway), and then the Third, because it’s completely irrelevant.

In between, I went fifth-fourth-sixth-seventh-eighth, though none of that is as firm as the five on the ends. The eighth I weighted low, because it’s too vague to be useful: Just what constitutes “excessive” or “cruel”? And the seventh lost points for the opposite reason: It’s too specific, with the result that the dollar amount it specifies is now obsolete. The others, I just sort of eyeballed their relative importance.

17

There’s a thread that’s NOT?

18

1,4,5,6,8,7,9,3,10,2

19

I went 1st first and 4th second. I was basically going to leave the rest tied but after some consideration I threw the 2nd in as a third-place finisher. Not by very much but enough ahead of the rest of the field to note.

20

9,2,1,10,4,5,6,7,8,3

9th because it gives a vital insight, often conveniently forgotten by those whose deity is the all powerful federal government, that the Constitution delegates powers from the people and states to the federal government. Not the other way around as many in the modern left yearn to have us all believe.

2nd because once you get away from theory of power you must have the means to exercise power. All that fancy book learning did the enemies of the state a whole bunch of good in Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Khmer Rouge, etc…

1 because the ability to speak, assembly, worship, and communicate via mass communications is vital to a democracy. The fact the 1st amendment is under assault from the left with speech codes, attacks on political press, etc. is again disheartening.

10th because we shouldn’t lose sight that the powers delegated to the federal government were from sovereign states and people. Now the Civil War settled that question as to where the real power is and practically speaking I’m glad the North won but they won due to superior firepower not reason. Which is why 2nd trumps 1st pragmatically.

The rest aside from the 3rd I would rank in about equal importance since they further constrain the use of the might of the state against an individual. It’s a damn shame that the 4th has been eroded so much as to be practically useless. Again, it highlights, this time from the right a hypocrisy between the ideals of limited government and the desire to be punitive against perceived undesirables.